The Beltway sniper was not, as many talking heads predicted, an international terrorist or a Marilyn Manson fan. The prime suspect, John Allen Muhammad, is a Gulf War veteran. His sidekick, 17-year-old John Lee Malvo, seems to be a lost youth who followed the wrong role model.
Malvo’s case may be extreme, but it is not uncommon for children to get lost by social service programs, only to be found later by the criminal justice system. Virginia’s budget crisis is prompting many cuts to local social service programs, and opponents warn such cuts may cost the Commonwealth in the long run. It’s cheaper, they say, to counsel troubled children now than detain law-breaking adolescents later.
On Saturday, November 2, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Commission on Children and Families and UVA’s Weldon Cooper Center held a forum called "Our Nation’s Kids: Is Something Wrong?" Leading up to that, CCF director Saphira Baker talked with C-VILLE Senior Staff Writer John Borgmeyer about helping kids on a shoestring budget. An edited transcript of that interview follows.
John Borgmeyer: The forum’s title poses a challenging question. How would you answer it?
Saphira Baker: The question is a provocative one. I think the answer is not that there’s something wrong with the children, but that we could do a better job building a strong community for them to thrive. Charlottesville is not Baltimore or New York City – it’s a place where people come to raise kids, and there are all kinds of examples of how strong we are, but some kids haven’t been able to get off the starting block as quickly.
In your experience, does a child’s success come down to economics?
No. I think problems of alcohol and drug abuse cross all economic lines. Finding positive alternatives for young people so they don’t feel like the most exciting thing to do is drink a six-pack is a challenging thing for all of us. Forty percent of kids on juvenile probation in Charlottesville and Albemarle came from homes where they see violent arguments between adults. They have drug and alcohol abuse in almost half of these families; and 42 percent have siblings or parents who were in the criminal justice system before.
I don’t think income has to be a barrier, but it can be if there’s less energy and resources in the household toward academic enrichment or volunteering, or other things we know are important to kids’ development. When you look at the kids who are passing the Standards of Learning tests and those who are not, kids from low-income families are not doing as well.
How do you begin to solve these problems?
These are not problems that can be solved by government. They need active residents, employers, businesses and banks who see the well-being of all the community’s children as critical.
Part of what we were thinking for the forum was, "Let’s get more folks coming to talk about these tough issues that, honestly, human service agencies can’t solve on their own." For example, if a bank decided to give every kid an internship who wanted one, if that came out of the forum, that would be huge. It’s about being open to creative solutions.
I guess you have to be more creative now that the State is cutting funding for social services.
It is clear that these mental health, domestic violence and drug treatment programs are being systematically reduced as we go into deeper budget cuts, with more on the table in December. At the same time, many residents are experiencing lay-offs or stagnant salaries, increased rental rates and property taxes. These kind of short-term State budget savings will save immediate dollars at the expense of the well-being of low-income and needy residents, and that is frightening.
We spend an extraordinary amount locking kids up and putting kids in psychiatric treatment, but it’s expensive and difficult to take somebody out of detention and return them to the community as an engaged citizen. It’s harder than if they’re 6. The good news is that the presence of a consistent, caring adult can make a huge difference in a child’s life. It doesn’t have to be a parent. It can be a mentor, a friend, anyone who respects them and has high expectations of them. If kids have that, they’re way more apt to do better than a kid who is moving through broken homes and wondering, "What about me?"